Remotely controlled robotic vehicles are now used in various applications, in many cases to replace the need for placing humans in dangerous and/or difficult positions. For example, the U.S. military now uses remotely controlled robotic vehicles, such as the PacBot™ and Talon™ robots, having camera systems mounted thereon, for operator observation of the immediate surroundings of the robots, and for bomb detection and disposal. The utilization of such remotely controlled robotic vehicles enables human operators to remain at safe distances from potentially hazardous environments, while simultaneously being able to observe the immediate surroundings of the robotic vehicle.
It has been observed that while it is easy to drive by observing a remotely controlled vehicle directly in its environment, it is remarkably difficult to drive one by observing a video display connected to a camera that looks straight ahead of the remotely controlled vehicle. This is particularly true if there isn't a visual clue, such as a line in a road to refer to when driving. It is also very difficult to drive through obstacles that may interfere with the vehicles motion, such as a narrow doorway.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system capable of providing a remote operating view of a vehicle, i.e., a view of the vehicle path via a video display, which approximates the view that an operator who is observing the vehicle directly would have, rather than through a conventional video camera and display, would have. Although the view may be slightly distorted in such a system, it is easy for a human to mentally compensate for this distortion, and therefore easy to drive the vehicle from this novel video image.